The book, which earned Rushdie Britain’s prestigious Booker literary prize, portrays the history of India from 1910 to a declared state of emergency in 1976. The story is narrated by a young man born on the stroke of midnight August 15, 1947, the day India won independence from Britain.

Toronto-based Mehta and Rushdie will co-write the screenplay, and they hope to have cameras rolling in 2010.

Indian actors Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das, who starred in two earlier Mehta films, “Fire” and “Earth,” are on board to star in the project.

Both Mehta and Rushdie were born in India, with the filmmaker eventually moving to Canada and the novelist to Britain.